About Local Farm; Mini-Jersey Family Cows, Homesteading & Hand-Milking Workshops

Local Farm encourages an intimate relationship with the food we eat and with our Mother Earth. A former raw milk dairy, we specialize in cow care and dairy products. We also breed, raise, and sell family-friendly miniature jersey cows.

Because there is nothing sweeter than milk from your own cow …

We began our journey by striving to provide our community with the best milk possible. For 21 years, we were committed to producing and selling raw milk from Jersey cows in eco-friendly returnable glass bottles. In 1996, we became the first farm in Connecticut to receive organic livestock certification. Although we dropped it when the Federal Standards took effect, we continue to manage according to the CT-NOFA Farmers’ Pledge. Over the years, we have realized our goal of 100% grass-fed cattle and our cows are exceptionally happy and healthy. Yet the fact remains: there is no milk sweeter than that from one’s own family cow!

We began offering workshops on keeping a family cow, as well as breeding our standard jerseys to smaller old-world jerseys. In 2012 we closed the raw milk business in order to commit more time to helping others develop their own farmsteads. Local Farmer, Debra Tyler says…

When people come to visit Local Farm, their whole beings change as they watch my cows contentedly chewing their cud or grazing on a lush, green pasture. Their bodies relax. Their movements become slower, more deliberate, and graceful. To me, their voices sound softer, lower, deeper, fuller. Through our workshops, I offer this gift of peace to all who visit.

Debra’s daughter, Margaret Hopkins, is the driving force behind her mule, Alphonse, as well as our Motherhouse FarmCamp Eureka involvement. Stay tuned for more evidence of her down-to-earth, horse sense!

Welcome to Local Farm

Many of our events are organized collaboratively with the non-profit Motherhouse, Inc. For regular updates on their eggscellent Old Style Life-Skills Series of workshops for the backyard farmer/homesteader, subscribe to the free Motherhouse newsletter, and/or "Like" Motherhouse on Facebook and receive reminders and reports of these and udder eggsciting events.

R Local Farm

"Where else in the world could I watch young kittens at play, cuddle a baby bunny, muck out a calf pen, see a newborn calf, watch swallows feeding their young, feed some chickens, watch a cow being bred, and walk an obstreperous young bull?" asked Naomi after a morning visit to Local Farm.
July 26, 2013.